


Light

by Cataclisms (Papipalooka)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bonding, First Kiss, Injury, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-19 12:19:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7361284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Papipalooka/pseuds/Cataclisms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Well, we could actually be dead. That’d be better than being stuck with Lance.”<br/>“I saved you!”<br/>“I saved you first!”<br/>Lance and Keith become trapped in a cave and are forced to wait for rescue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Light

**Author's Note:**

> Please spelunk responsibly.  
> This is literally just that one episode of avatar where they get trapped in a cave let's be honest here.  
> Warning for very mild injuries. (btw pidge is a trans girl in this, not that it's all that relevant lmao)

     Admittedly, Lance knows very little about Keith, aside from superficial things he’d learned at the Garrison. He knew Keith was good enough to be a top pilot, but bad enough at discipline to be expelled. He knew he had a terrible haircut and dark eyes that maybe weren’t so terrible. He also knew he was shorter than Lance and that his mullet gave him a little extra height. He knew he didn’t hate Keith as much as he acted. He guessed that Keith didn’t hate him that much either. But what he didn’t know was that the red paladin was just as fallible as any of them. That he was made of the same cells as any of them, fragile skin upon breakable bones. This was something best not learned while trapped in a cave on an isolated planet, but most lessons are never easy nor kind.

     The mission was to collect mineral samples from one of the various caverns on the heavily forested planet. Allura and the others had wanted to study the properties of the mineral and its interaction with quintessence, for some reason. Lance was still a bit lost on the more supernatural aspects of their life, but if it was a step towards kicking Zarkon’s ass, he was down for it. He and Keith were providing backup for Pidge and Hunk while they attempting to locate the mineral deposits using the device they’d tracked down Blue with. Shiro was surveying the surrounding forests for any Galran outposts, poised to report any incoming patrols to the group while they were underground. The planet itself was largely isolated from the rest of the system, most of it unmapped and potentially more dangerous than any patrols. As the cave floor began to gradually slope further down, Lance thought of this and couldn’t help a feeling of anxiety as the damp limestone-like walls grew more narrow.

“Hey, Guys? Remember that cave in the desert we found Blue in?”

     Hunk turned his head to look at Lance, “Yeah? Like how it had all those crystals and symbols and stuff?”

     Lance shrugged, “Well, I mean, it was such a nice cave. It was all dry and shit. It didn’t smell like our deaths were imminent or anything.”

     Pidge snorted, “ Are you... _afraid_ of the dark, Lance?” In the background, Hunk mentioned something about being afraid of the dark himself.

“No!,” Lance yelled back, “I just have a weird feeling about this place. Something feels off to me. I can’t put my finger on it.”

Pidge furrowed her eyebrows and started to speak when Keith cut her off, “ I agree with Lance.”

Lance balked, “ You agree with me?

“ Yeah, actually. I didn’t really think about it till now but, when we were still in the forest, it seemed too quiet. There weren’t any birds singing. Or whatever this planet’s equivalent is.”

Pidge pressed the pad of her thumb against her bottom lip, thinking. “You’re right. Allura said there used to be life on this planet, but maybe the Galra wiped it out.”

Hunk frowned, uncharacteristically serious, “ No, there’s definitely gotta be life on this planet. We saw those... _space squirrels_... after we left the lions, remember? They can’t be the only animals on this planet.”

Pidge nodded, “This place definitely has the ability to support life. If the animals are quiet then I think something’s about to happen. Maybe we should get out of here.”

Lance looked at Pidge and started to ask her what she meant when the world shifted. Lance was pitched forward as the planet shook violently. Pidge tripped and grabbed onto Hunk for support while Keith held himself against the tunnel wall. Over all the rumbling Lance could hear Pidge screaming about an earthquake and felt someone pulling him up by his arm. His helmet light flickered erratically from the shaking and he could barely make out Keith’s face a few inches from his own. The two of them started towards Hunk and Pidge when a shower of rocks divided them. Lance felt Keith hurl his body against his own, the smaller boy letting a boulder crack apart against his shoulder. Lance felt his panic growing when he saw the way Keith’s arm slumped downward. The chasm from which the rocks fell grew bigger as the quake continued. Lance felt a sharp pain in his ankle but elected to ignore it as he pulled Keith away from the remaining debris.

Slowly, the shaking eased and the rocks turned to pebbles, tumbling softly down the piles of stones. Coughing from the dust in the air, Lance yelled for Hunk and Pidge. When he heard nothing, he turned on his comm, the faint blue light of his visor a familiar comfort. 

“Hello, Pidge...Hunk?”  


The first voice he heard crackling to life was Hunk. “Lance! Are you alright?”  


Lance leaned against the rock pile and shifted his weight onto his right foot. He looked over at Keith, who was still holding his own arm. Even from ten feet away, he could hear his ragged breathing .  


Lance answered honestly, “Well, we’re not dead,” He tried to laugh a little but it came out more frazzled than anything. He could feel Keith staring at his back as he was talking. “but Keith’s hurt and I might have twisted my ankle,” Lance gingerly shifted his weight and yelped at the intense pain, “Yeah, no, it’s definitely twisted.”  


Before any of them could respond Pidge’s voice managed its way through the static, “ That’s not a very optimistic answer.”  


“Well, we could actually be dead. That’d be better than being stuck with Lance.”  


“I saved you!”  


“I saved you first!”  


Hunk’s voice came back, more steady this time, “ Guys, Pidge and I are on the side where the entrance is. If there haven’t been anymore cave-ins our way we might be able to get out and message Shiro and the others for help.”  


Lance felt uncomfortable at Hunk’s seriousness, “You can’t message them down here?”  


“ No, we’ve tried,” the voice this time was Pidge, “the connection with them is bad down here. “ Lance sighed at the static that danced between Pidge’s words. Evidently, the connection was bad just between the four of them down here.  


“So if you guys get up there, we’ll lose the connection and won’t be able to talk? What if we run out of air?” Keith said.  


Lance didn’t want to think about that. His throat already felt tight from all of the dust.  


“We’ll come back, I promise.” Pidge replied, her voice strained. Lance wondered if this reminded her of her family at all. He didn’t mention it. “ You guys have extra oxygen in your suits as well as those first-aid packs we installed the other week.” Lance’s hand shifted to his hip, where one of his first aid packs was attached to his belt. This modification had been made after a snowstorm had made it impossible to return to the castle during a battle, leaving a wounded Shiro without anything to stop the bleeding. None of them were keen on something like that happening again.  


Keith muttered something to himself but Lance nodded slowly, “ Alright...just be quick, Okay? I think Keith’s got cave madness already.” Keith threw a rock at him.  


“We will! As soon as Shiro finds us we’ll be back to dig you guys out,” Hunk replied, “ Just be careful until the-“  


Hunk’s comm went out, the ambient static cut to nothing. Lance strained his ears, waiting for anything on their side. He kept it up for a few minutes, occasionally yelling at the huge rock pile in front of him. Finally, he gave up and followed his light over to Keith.  


“Comms are out. Completely.” Lance said, taking his helmet off his head and running his fingers through his short, spiky hair.  


Beside him, Keith sighed, “Well, shit.” Lance looked over as Keith released one of the first-aid kits from its clip on his belt and struggled to open the tough plastic container. He realized that Keith wasn’t moving his right arm. Slowly, he reached over and grabbed the kit, his fingers brushing Keith’s. Their breathing both hitched at this, and Lance avoided eye contact as he opened the container. Inside were the Altaean equivalents of bandages, saline spray, alcohol wipes, gauze wrap, and burn gel. The other pack on the other side of his belt probably had tweezers and other medical stuff. Underneath all the gauze, however, Lance discovered an instant ice pack.  


“How’s your arm doing?”

Keith glanced at him, “ My collarbone’s broken. I can hear it grinding when I move my arm.” He tried to move him arm up and winced at the motion. He looked almost sick at the gritty noise his shoulder made. Lance could tell Keith was trying to keep his breaths even despite the pain.  
“Okay, so the first thing we should do is...,” Lance had no idea what the first thing to do was. He reached across Keith to poke at his shoulder plate while Keith slapped his hand away. With his left arm Keith started to release the shoulder guard and arm plates on his right. The pieces of armor fell on the ground with a series of soft thumps. He managed to undo the clasps on the right side of his chest armor as well, but started to struggle when he moved to the left. After watching him wallow in his stubbornness for a few more moments, Lance gingerly undid the clasps and offered to do the same for the plates on his arm. Eventually, after failing to move his injured side again, Keith relented. Finally, the two of them managed to unzip the top half of the Keith’s uniform from the back. Keith pulled the sleeve down just enough to reveal his collarbone, where an angry red blotch had formed on his skin and a bump protruded beneath the skin.

“Holy shit, that’s gonna leave a bruise,” Lance noted astutely.

“Didn’t you break your ankle or something?”

Lance looked over at his foot and shrugged, “It doesn’t hurt that much anymore, I can barely feel it. Also, I think I just sprained it. Probably.”  
“Isn’t that a bad sign if you can’t feel it?”

“...maybe.”, Lance replied, “I don’t really remember much about first aid.”

Keith’s mouth formed a terse line as he stared at Lance, “We were literally certified in first aid in our first month at the Garrison!”

Lance huffed, “ It didn’t seem that important! I mean I passed but I never really had any use for it until all this voltron junk happened! Plus we’ve always had the healing pods!”

“So almost dying in a fiery explosion a few months ago hasn’t really changed your stance then?”

Lance jabbed a finger at Keith, “What about the time you got a bloody nose when we were training? You freaked out!”

Keith grabbed Lance’s finger and pushed it back at him, “I didn’t freak out, you did!” Lance thought back on the day. He’d managed to land a punch on Keith, his fist meeting the side of Keith’s nose. He’d been so excited he hadn’t noticed how quickly Keith rebounded until he felt his legs give out from a sweeping kick. Facing the ceiling, he was the first to notice the slow drip of blood coming from Keith’s nose. He’d pointed at Keith and watched as Keith wiped away at his face only to find a bright red smear. Maybe he had freaked out a little bit, but only because he’d never done that to someone before. He’d drawn blood in fights with his siblings but that was small stuff, scrapes and scratches; this was the first time he’d seen so much blood in a nose bleed before. He wan’t proud of it. He’d led Keith to the infirmary, maybe shoved some gauze in his face, but he hadn’t panicked or anything. He definitely wasn’t going to panic now.

“I might’ve freaked out a little bit,” Lance started waving his hands at Keith for emphasis, “but I am, without a doubt, the most calm and collected person in this cave right now!” Keith lifted an eyebrow at Lance’s jazz hands, then crumpled the instant ice pack in his hand. He reached over and unclipped the other first aid kit from his belt. This time, he managed to dig his fingers in far enough that the pack opened with relative ease. He fished out a sterile cloth from underneath all the extra antiseptic gel packs and wrapped the cooling ice pack in it. He moved his right arm closer to his body, trying to keep it elevated, then he pressed the pack against the fresh red bruise. After he did, his breaths became deeper and less strained. He asked Lance if the other pack he’d taken earlier had any painkillers in them. Lance shook his head. Keith half-whispered something along the lines of ‘well,fuck’.

“Are you telling me,” Keith wheezed, “ of all the things we could’ve forgotten to stock these with, we forgot painkillers.”

Lance scratched his chin, ‘Maybe Allura and Coran can’t feel pain? Or Altaeans just have a really high pain tolerance?”

“I don’t think that’s right.”

Lance laughed.

Keith watched Lance struggle to remove his boot from his swollen foot. The bruise there was already darker than the one on Keith’s shoulder and was spread across the entirety of his ankle. Lance held his leg up to get a closer look at the injury in the dim light of the cave. A minute or so later he put his leg back on the ground and gently pressed the center of the bruise. He immediately cursed something in Spanish and Keith realized his voice was echoing, the pain in it becoming softer and softer as it danced away from the two of them. Had Lance hurt his ankle when he fell? Or when Keith had pushed him out of the way? He tried to remember if Lance had been limping but there’d been too much dust for him to make out much more than a tall, skinny outline crowned by the soft teal light of his helmet. Keith hoped it wasn’t his fault.

Barely two feet away Lance had started to ice his ankle. Keith had been hurt because he’d saved him from being hit by a boulder. He remembered seeing that flash of red as Keith’s shoulder caught against his sternum. He remembered the way the boulder, bigger than his head, had clipped against Keith’s other shoulder. It seemed less visceral when he dissected the memory in his head: Keith’s shoulder sagging down, Keith grunting in pain, Keith gritting his teeth, trying to stamp out the fear in his expression. The more Lance tried to forget that face, the more it flashed in his mind. He felt awful. He turned his head and looked over at the red paladin.

“Hey, Ke-“

“You should keep that elevated.”

Lance scrunched up his face, ‘What?”

“Your ankle. You should keep it elevated.”

Lance turned and looked at his foot, ‘With what? A rock?”

“Yeah, probably. We do have a huge pile of them like ten feet away.”

“ I can’t carry any of those with just one foot! Why don’t you...,” Lance started before realizing that Keith was still holding the ice pack to his shoulder. Defeated, Lance slumped against the wall, carefully balancing the ice on his leg. He was getting a headache from the combination of pain and stale cave air. Out of everything to be forgotten, it had to be painkillers. He looked over at Keith, who was staring at the wall across from them. Taking advantage of this, Lance swept his leg up onto Keith’s knee. The ice pack fell to the ground, abandoned.

Keith scowled at him but Lance just snorted. “Hey,” he said, “at least it’s elevated now.” Lance was amazed when the other boy didn’t take the bait and instead yawned and continued to sit quietly. The sat like that for maybe ten or twenty minutes, Lance wasn’t sure. Time was pretty difficult to keep without a watch. In that time, Lance regretted his sitting position because his neck ached. Tired and without really thinking he let his head drop onto Keith’s uninjured shoulder. He felt Keith’s entire body jump at the sudden physical contact and he sat up, wondering if he’d accidentally hurt him.

“Jesus,” Keith said, “you scared me.”

“Scared?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You definitely did! I scared you!”

“No,” Keith scooted closer over to Lance, “I just didn’t see it coming.”

“That’s like the definition of being scared.”

“Lance, do you want to put your head on my shoulder or don’t you?”

With that Lance put his head against Keith’s shoulder again, thankful that the rigid shoulder plates were gone. He let his breathing sync up with Keith’s deep, controlled breaths, briefly forgetting the burgeoning headache behind his forehead.

“I wanted to say thank you.”

Lance felt Keith’s chin brush the top of his head.

“For what?,” Keith replied.

Lance closed his eyes, feeling Keith’s breath against his scalp.

“For pushing me out of the way earlier. If you hadn’t, I might have a concussion...or worse.”

Lance thought he felt Keith inhale sharply at the last part, but it was too fleeting to tell. He waited for the other boy to respond.

“You’re welcome.” A second later, Lance felt Keith’s head against his own. The cave was so wet and cool, it was comforting to have something, or someone, so warm against them. Both of them could feel a fierce blush rising in their cheeks, but neither of them looked at the other.

“I don’t hate you,” Keith said, his words almost muffled against Lance’s hair.

“I don’t hate you either,” Lance said, “although I did think you were kind of a dick at first. It turns out I was right about that but you’re like, a Good Dick.”

Keith pinched Lance’s ear just a bit too rough, “Thanks.” Keith smiled when Lance flinched. Lance moved and pinched Keith’s nose with the same force, making Keith knock the back off his head against the wall. While Lance was laughing Keith noticed how nice Lance looked in the incandescent light emitted from the helmets on the ground. Every part of him that was usually so pointed seemed softer. The slope of his nose seemed more gentle and he could still make out the stubborn freckles on it that refused to disappear, no matter how little sun they got. His eyelashes were short and stubby and somehow managed to perfectly frame his eyes, which shined from the light reflected off the wet cave walls. His heart nearly disappeared from his chest when he realized those eyes had made contact with his. He was half-tempted to punch himself in the collarbone, to escape the moment, but they’d managed to catch each other in their stare.

“ I like you,” Lance started, “ I thought I hated you and I thought you hated me, but I was wrong.”

“ Yeah, we just talked about this two minutes ago.”

“No, I mean that I like you more than that, that I actually kind of...,” Lance stopped before he could finish, holding the rest of the sentence back.

Keith leaned in closer, staring at Lance.

“You what, Lance?”

Lance inhaled deeply, his chest plate rising. He exhaled, then looked over at Keith.

“ That I think you’re pretty alright.”

“That...is such a fucking cop out right there.”

“Alright, then why don’t you say it?”

“Say what?,” Keith asked.

“ Confess your undying love for me right now while we’re trapped in this gross hole.”

“ Hell no. You first.”

Lance huffed, “ I’ll admit I love you when I’m dead.”

“ You just did!”

Lance held his chin in his hand for a few moments, studying the ground, “...shit.”

Keith snickered at this and looked over at Lance, “Hey, we should try to save the battery on our helmets.” Lance reached over and grabbed the helmets, setting the red one in Keith’s lap. The two of them nodded slightly before clicking off the lights in their helmets. In that moment, the pale yellow and blue that had filled the small tunnel disappeared, letting darkness cover them. Lance could feel Keith’s face getting closer, the tiny hairs on his skin rising from the closeness, the shared energy. In the dark, Lance reached out for Keith’s face, finding the side of it, his thumb resting on the other’s cheekbone. The lips were both chapped from dehydration but neither of them cared enough to stop. All those months of petty rivalry and careful friendship had been forged into something strong, like weak ore folded over countless times into a razor sharp blade.

Keith liked the way Lance’s skin felt so soft. He remembered that was probably due to his constant use of face masks. He also liked the faint smell of kiwi beneath all the dirt and grime. Again, probably the face wash. Lance liked the feel of Keith’s hand, the knobby knuckles and the rough, calloused fingers. They were the hands of someone who gave enough of a shit to work hard. He especially loved Keith’s hands in his long, thin ones. They clacked teeth once, by accident, but ignored it. They were fledgling and without speaking they both understood this. When they parted long enough to rest their foreheads against each other they found themselves illuminated by a green light. At first, they both looked down at their helmets, wondering if the comms were back on. When they saw no light from their helmets they looked up at the ceiling of the cave.

They’d found the mineral. They been sitting under it this entire time.

Small clusters of crystals littered the ceiling of the cave, extending onto the tunnel wall across from the two of them. The soft but steady glow of the crystals reminded Lance of the green that Pidge’s lion was covered in. Further down the tunnel, Lance could see a few more clusters, with some crystals dropping much further down. He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of this entire day, but instead he ran his finger through Keith’s mullet, ruffling his hair. They both looked at each other, still cognizant of the pain from the injuries, and they smiled.

An hour later, the comms came back on. Another thirty minutes after that, a hole appeared in the ceiling above them, sending a group of crystals onto the floor. Flinching in the light, Lance and Keith looked up to see their fellow paladins. Together, Keith supporting Lance’s ankle and Lance’s arm wrapped carefully around Keith’s shoulder, they were pulled back up into the light.

**Author's Note:**

> "Secret Tunnel" was actually a beloved folk song on Altaea, and Coran knows every verse by heart.


End file.
